St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-11
How He Taught Joe Jefferson
to Properly Play the Role
of Caleb PIummer.
He Says He Played the Char
acter Of a French King
With a BPogue.
Special Letter to the Globe.

dents that happened to
- The Shaughraun'' on
its first night. Everything went well
until my first scene, in which | describe
the fox hunt, to attend which Conn
steals Squire FOley's horse. The public
9OOk fire before | expected, and exploded
In the wrong place. This took me by
surprise, and | forgot the words. Turn
ing to Nine. POnisi l said, ''What is it,"
She replied. Il don't know and there
we stood. 1 made up the rest of the
speech as best | could, or rather stag
gered through it. In the second act,
when front scene should have been
drawn to discover the ruined abbey by
moonlight. with the silver ripple made
BY the moon on the waters, there was a
long wall. The slow music was played
again and again. | became dreadfully
impatient. when Tommy Bardon, the
gaSman. who managed all the lime
light effects, including the moOn.rushed
towards me with despair CONFUSING his
features.
Whats the matter?'' I cried.
"Oh. sir, the moon has busted" He
meant that the lens which is focused on
the circular Orifice representing the
moon had broken under the heat.
No matter" l cried, draw the
scene" Tommy tore his hair when, on
discovering Matt Morgan's lovely work,
a round black hole in the sky repre-
scented a total eclipse. Nevertheless the
waters below showed the ripping re-
Election of the satellite absentee.
Tommy had forgotten Ito turn off the
ripple" A roar of laughter saluted the
blunder.
But all this was nothing compared to
what happened in the last scene of the
play when M0lineuX has to search for
the wound in Kinchela's body inflicted
by COnn's pistol shot. The text directs
MolineuX to feel the breast of Kinchela's
coat, eXclaiming: The bullet entered
here, but something has arrested its
progress. Ali this pocketbOOk has
MOIineux. could find no pOcketbOOk. L
heard him whisper: where's the
pocketbOok?'' ''Oh, Lord" murmured
Kinchela, L forgot, it's in my tail
pocket" Montague rolled him over,
and extracting the book from that spot,
continued, without thinking, ''The
bullet entered here" etc, etc. The
HOmeric roar of laughter. in which
every one OH the stage joined, shook the
building. l tried to speak the rest of
my part. but how l got the few words
out | cannot remember.
JEFFERSON'S CoLOR-BLTNDNESS.
In 1853 the Winter Garden opened its
doors in New York with a version of
The Cricket on the HEARTH" re-
chriStened Dot" in which play the
character of Caleb Plummer has been
written for jefferson, who was then
emerging from obScurity. 1t was July.
] was staying in Newport. The the
atrical season was to open in September.
The parts had been sent out to the COM
pany. In few days L received visit
from Jefferson. He came to decline the
part. He said he had appeared in the
character at Baltimore and elsewhere
and had failed diSmally in it. | assured
him that my Caleb was another kind
of character-there was nothing dismal
about it. Still he refused to risk it. l
pointed out to him that only few days
interviewed before the opening of the
house. We had no other play ready
and no scenery in the new building.
We had no one else to play the part.
At last he reluctantly consented to play
it if he was allowed to perform on the
same night the character of Scion
Single, which he regarded as his war
horse" OF course this was yielded.
We assembled to rehearSe dot" After
the first scene | took Jefferson aside
and said to him:
Il say. Joe don't Sulk over the part.
You may as well rehearSe properly"
Il am not sul1ing at ALI he ex-
claimed. You see l am right in say
ing the part don't suit me.''
Presently detected the error. He had
mistaken the key and was playing Caleb
in a melancholy minor instead of
brilliant major. | asked him to sit in
my authors chair facing the scene while
l reheGrsed the rest of the part for him.
He did so and watched me as pro-
ceeded to give an imitation of himself
as he should have drawn the character.
He shifted about uneasily for some
time-he had caught the idea of the
childish old man-until at last he
jumped up. crying: Il see! All right.
did not understand it before. can do
it."
Dot was produced and the come
dian scored one Of the greatest successes
of his career.
In 1865 he arrived in London from
Australia where he had been starring.
He was DESTROYS of appearing i'll the
English metropolis, but all his pieces
had been performed there, and mana
gers declined to give him an opening
unless he could appear in something
new. He offered them his old play.
rip Van Wrinkle" The piece had
been presented by Hackett and SubSe-
quently by Burke. Managers returned
is DtlL8 NOO blltIlN Ddus IOO ilt CdlllC
me for help. After turning various
pjects over in my mind it occurred to
than all entirely new version of Rip
could be made-Rip as young
man. the thriftleSS YagabOnd. the
10y of the boys and girls
and dogs of the village. a kind of
Dutch Shaughran. The idea was pre-
scented to Jefferson. who declined to see
it. He could see the weird, slovenly
old drunkard, but young Rip in
curly brown wig, young scamp. was
out of his preconceptiOn at all. l
pointed out that there is
No INTEREST IN OLD MEN.
they had no future, no one cares what
becomes of them, and a drunken old
Sl0ueh conveys no pleasure as a con-
temptation. Still he Shirked Rip in that
shape: but as | failed to see it in any
other light, he had no alternative but to
accept my proposal. l reminded him of
our disagreement over Caleb Piummer.
but he held back his confidence in the
proposed version.
A few weeks afterwards, while the
play was in rehearsal. he came to me
and took it all back. Il don't think"
said he, Il could play the old piece now.
You have completely dethrOned the
character | conceived from Burke"
Jefferson was color blind, though not so
completely so as Burton. Burton, con-
fident, saw himself in characters he
could not represent; jefferson, lacking
in confidence, could not see himself in
the parts for which he was best fitted.
The instances of perverted vision in our
art are so numerous that clearneSS of
Judgment on oneself in such matters
seems to be the exception. The artist,
as a rule, undertakes what he or she
does with the greatest case,
and therefore what is done best.
They can not see that effort and eXer-
ton are the signs, as they are necessary
resnltS OF inenmnetnncN The aetnr sees